Parish History

Aldingham St Cuthbert is an Ancient Parish in the county of Lancashire. Part of the Diocese of Chester until 1847 when it passed to the Diocese of Carlisle as part of the Furness deanery. Other places in the parish include: Gleaston, Birkrig Common, and Leece.

At the centre of the present village, now on the shores of the Bay, is St Cuthbert's Church. An inscription in Durham Cathedral gives the names of several places in the area, including Aldingham, where the body of Saint Cuthbert rested when the Saxons were fleeing from the Danes. It is known that during his life, Cuthbert held lands around Cartmel, on the neighbouring peninsula across the Leven Estuary, although it is not known if those possessions extended this far west.

The building dates from the mid 12th century, with extensions being made to the chancel in the 13th century, the addition of the tower in 1350 and extensive restoration taking place in the 19th century and again in 1932. In the eastern wall of the chancel is a hole about 5 inches (130 mm) by 3 inches (76 mm) that goes right through the wall: it is believed this would once have been a place for local lepers to view the church services without having to enter the building.

"ALDINGHAM St Cuthbert, a parish, in the union of Ulverston, hundred of Lonsdale north of the Sands, N. division of the County of Lancaster, 5¾ miles south of Ulverston."[1]

Resources

There are two separate (free) indexes available for Lancashire civil registration of births, marriages and deaths. One index covers all registrations nation-wide, and one index covers the copies of the local registration district office's certificate copies for all registration districts throughout Lancashire, as follows:

FreeBMD - an online (free) index to the certificates held at the General Registrar's Office, formerly in London, now in Solihull, Merseyside, UK. The years currently covered in this index include July, 1837 to at least 1940.

Lancashire-OPC provides numerous parish and chapel transcriptions online (free) for the post-1837 to 1910 period. Marriages after 1837 provide the same information as the civil registration certificates of marriages provide. However, the marriages in these online offerings are marriage transcriptions only.

The Family History Library at FamilySearch has on microfilm the registers to both the parish of Aldingham and its chapelry Dendron. These are available on the following microfilm--which can be ordered for and searched at any of its 4,600 satellite FamilySearch Centers worldwide:

Census records

Census records from 1841 to 1911 are available online. For access, see England Census Records and Indexes Online. Census records from 1841 to 1891 are also available on film through a Family History Center or at the Family History Library.

Poor Law Unions

Probate records

Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Lancashire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers

Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.